Sophisticated Perception Research Articles

Lidar-Based Obstacle Detection and Path Prediction for Unmanned Surface Vehicles

Abstract Unmanned Surface Vehicles (USVs) represent an advanced technology with a wide range of applications in maritime contexts, and they offer a promising alternative to manned systems, particularly for the provision of services such as riverbed mapping. Furthermore, the use of USVs in combination with other robotic systems, such as flying drones, remotely operated underwater vehicles (ROVs) and autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), opens up innovative ways to inspect and monitor maritime infrastructure. However, the use of these systems in dynamic environments, such as ports or shipping lanes, requires a high degree of adaptability and precision in navigation to manoeuvre safely between other traffic participants and obstacles to prevent collisions. To address this problem, USVs require sophisticated perception systems for the precise detection and classification of nearby objects. Leveraging Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) technology, which is renowned for its efficacy in obstacle avoidance in robotics, this paper outlines the adaptation of a LiDAR sensor for USVs. The proposed pipeline enables the detection of other moving vessels and the accurate determination of their positions and trajectories up to 150 m from the USV. This paper introduces an obstacle detection system and validates it within a port setting. A methodical approach to LiDAR data preprocessing, clustering, and point cloud extraction will be outlined. Furthermore, it explores the application of an Unscented Kalman Filter (UKF) for the projection of motion paths of identified entities. This advanced form of data analysis provides the ability to predict the future position and path of potential obstacles, optimize decision-making for autonomous navigation algorithms and significantly improve the safety of USV operations. The pipeline is tested experimentally in sea trials by enacting five different scenarios that USV may encounter in a port setting. The results of the pipeline’s tracking capabilities are compared to the ground truth data collected by the tracked vessel and plotted to visualize the error.

Minimal perception: enabling autonomy in resource-constrained robots.

The rapidly increasing capabilities of autonomous mobile robots promise to make them ubiquitous in the coming decade. These robots will continue to enhance efficiency and safety in novel applications such as disaster management, environmental monitoring, bridge inspection, and agricultural inspection. To operate autonomously without constant human intervention, even in remote or hazardous areas, robots must sense, process, and interpret environmental data using only onboard sensing and computation. This capability is made possible by advancements in perception algorithms, allowing these robots to rely primarily on their perception capabilities for navigation tasks. However, tiny robot autonomy is hindered mainly by sensors, memory, and computing due to size, area, weight, and power constraints. The bottleneck in these robots lies in the real-time perception in resource-constrained robots. To enable autonomy in robots of sizes that are less than 100 mm in body length, we draw inspiration from tiny organisms such as insects and hummingbirds, known for their sophisticated perception, navigation, and survival abilities despite their minimal sensor and neural system. This work aims to provide insights into designing a compact and efficient minimal perception framework for tiny autonomous robots from higher cognitive to lower sensor levels.

Design, Control, and Clinical Applications of Magnetic Actuation Systems: Challenges and Opportunities

The enhancement of medical services relies significantly on engineering research. Magnetic actuation systems (MASs) are designed to be safe for biomedical applications and offer long‐distance and dynamic control capabilities, rendering them highly favorable for clinical applications. The integration of MASs with sophisticated perception and positioning methods enhances their suitability for clinical applications. Achieving this goal hinges on the development of MASs and their control methods; thus, a comprehensive review of current technical and scientific issues is indispensable for addressing the related challenges. This review encompasses both the classical and state‐of‐the‐art research, providing readers with a thorough understanding of the intricacies involved in MAS design, system control methods, clinical applications, and guidance toward the next phase of exploration. In addition, a detailed illustration of the underlying principles of the magnetic actuation method is provided, which helps delineate the design principles. A detailed analysis of potential clinical applications in hard‐to‐reach environments inside the human body provides guidance for interdisciplinary researchers. Challenges and opportunities associated with MAS design and application are summarized to inspire researchers and stimulate innovative explorations. Finally, this review concludes that sustained research in this field has the potential to yield groundbreaking advancements capable of revolutionizing modern medicine.

AI in Autonomous Vehicles

The integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in autonomous vehicles represents a transformative leap towards safer, more efficient, and technologically advanced transportation systems. This abstract provides a comprehensive overview of the dynamic landscape where AI converges with autonomous vehicles, examining the synergies, challenges, and far-reaching implications of this groundbreaking integration AI-Powered Perception and Decision-Making: Delving into the technological core, the abstract explores how AI empowers autonomous vehicles with sophisticated perception systems, such as computer vision and sensor fusion. It discusses the role of machine learning algorithms in real-time decision-making, enabling vehicles to adapt to dynamic road conditions and unforeseen circumstances. Challenges in Autonomy: Recognizing the complexity of autonomous systems, the abstract addresses challenges such as handling edge cases, ensuring robustness against adversarial attacks, and navigating regulatory and ethical considerations. It emphasizes the importance of addressing these challenges to foster public trust and acceptance of autonomous vehicles. Human-AI Interaction in Autonomous Vehicles: Examining the interface between humans and AI-driven vehicles, the abstract discusses the importance of designing intuitive and trustworthy communication channels. It explores advancements in natural language processing and gesture recognition, fostering seamless collaboration between humans and autonomous systems. Regulatory Landscape and Ethical Considerations: Recognizing the pivotal role of regulations, the abstract discusses the evolving regulatory landscape for autonomous vehicles. It delves into ethical considerations surrounding AI decisions in critical situations, underscoring the need for a harmonized approach to ensure responsible AI deployment in autonomous driving scenarios.

An Integrated Approach of Threat Analysis for Autonomous Vehicles Perception System

Automated vehicles are a revolutionary step in mobility, providing a safe and convenient riding experience while keeping the human-driving task minimal to none. Therefore, these intelligent vehicles are equipped with sophisticated perception sensors (e.g., cameras and radars), high-performance computers, artificial intelligence (AI)-driven algorithms, and connectivity with other internet-of-things (IoT) devices. This makes autonomous vehicles (AVs) a special kind of cyber-physical system (CPS) that is moving at speed in highly interactive and dynamic environments (e.g., public roads). Thus, AV is a potential target for cyber attackers to weaponize, compromising safety and mobility on the road. The first step in addressing this problem is to have a robust threat modeling framework that can address the evolving cyber-physical threats, especially to AV applications. In this regard, two areas are studied in this paper: the common practice of threat modeling in automotive and the ISO/SAE 21434 standard, and sensors and machine learning (ML) algorithms for AV perception systems and potential cyber-physical attacks. A comparative threat analysis for an AV perception system with the ISO/SAE 21434 standard and a system-theoretic process analysis for security (STPA-Sec) approach is also demonstrated in this paper. Based on the analysis, this paper proposes a robust threat analysis and risk assessment framework with mathematical modeling to identify cyber-physical threats to AV perception systems that are critical for the driving behaviors and complex interactions of AVs in their operational design domain.

Misperception and Cognition in Markets

We consider a market setting where a consumer holds either a naive or sophisticated perception of their preference over products. We introduce the concept of a cognitive equilibrium, in which the consumer can transition between the cognitive states of naiveté and sophistication depending on the degree of exploitation in the market. We compare market outcomes under monopoly and competition. While competition unambiguously improves market outcomes when the consumer’s cognitive state is exogenous, it can strictly lower gains from trade when cognitive states are endogenously determined.

Construction and Excavation by Collaborative Double-Tailed SAW Robots

We describe a minimalistic robot mechanism that is capable of many construction behaviors in dry granular material including locomotion, climbing, leveling, subtraction, addition, transport, and burrowing. The design extends upon a single-actuator wave mechanism with the insight that the tails can be used both for locomotion in and manipulation of granules. For simplicity, experiments are limited to 2 manually controlled or 2 open loop robots operating in a quasi-2D vertical arena filled with packing peanuts. We demonstrate and characterize construction by single- and multi-robot systems, with special attention to how mechanism improvement, autonomy, and 3D operation could be achieved. Remarkably, we find that the majority of behaviors are robust – that is, the robots can achieve the intended functionality through open loop control, largely eliminating the need for sophisticated perception. The experiments indicate an unprecedented, simple robotic solution to many of the classic construction challenges.

Infant color perception: Insight into perceptual development.

A remarkable amount of perceptual development occurs in the first year after birth. In this article, we spotlight the case of color perception. We outline how within just 6 months, infants go from very limited detection of color as newborns to a more sophisticated perception of color that enables them to make sense of objects and the world around them. We summarize the evidence that by 6 months, infants can perceive the dimensions of color and categorize it, and have at least rudimentary mechanisms to keep color perceptually constant despite variation in illumination. In addition, infants’ sensitivity to color relates to statistical regularities of color in natural scenes. We illustrate the contribution of these findings to understanding the development of perceptual skills such as discrimination, categorization, and constancy. We also discuss the relevance of the findings for broader questions about perceptual development and identify directions for research.

Co-incidence of Damage and Microbial Patterns Controls Localized Immune Responses in Roots

SummaryRecognition of microbe-associated molecular patterns (MAMPs) is crucial for the plant’s immune response. How this sophisticated perception system can be usefully deployed in roots, continuously exposed to microbes, remains a mystery. By analyzing MAMP receptor expression and response at cellular resolution in Arabidopsis, we observed that differentiated outer cell layers show low expression of pattern-recognition receptors (PRRs) and lack MAMP responsiveness. Yet, these cells can be gated to become responsive by neighbor cell damage. Laser ablation of small cell clusters strongly upregulates PRR expression in their vicinity, and elevated receptor expression is sufficient to induce responsiveness in non-responsive cells. Finally, localized damage also leads to immune responses to otherwise non-immunogenic, beneficial bacteria. Damage-gating is overridden by receptor overexpression, which antagonizes colonization. Our findings that cellular damage can “switch on” local immune responses helps to conceptualize how MAMP perception can be used despite the presence of microbial patterns in the soil.

White Oppression and Black Resistance in Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye

Many critical interpretations of Morrison’s The Bluest Eye are driven by the belief that the novel pessimistically depicts an African American community so helplessly captivated by an insidious white aesthetic ideology that it is incapable of resistance, self-regeneration, or change. Pointing out the flawed premises of these readings, this article argues that the novel presents rather an effective example of resistance to the dominant white ideology thematically and formally. Morrison’s deconstructive rewriting of the “Dick and Jane” primer effectively subverts the terms of the white oppressive discourse and demolishes its ideological foundations, thus paving the way for African American self-affirmation. This is reflected in Claudia’s increasing awareness of, and mounting rebellion against, the destructive white aesthetic. Her rejection of the white beauty myth, demonstrated by her confused early childhood’s destruction of white baby dolls, culminates in a more sophisticated perception of the operation of this myth and in a radical retrieval and re-affirmation of the black beauty and worth which the white beauty myth denies in order to legitimate itself and establish its hegemony. The article argues that the radical resistance to the dehumanizing white ideology Claudia develops is, like Morrison’s formal deconstructive project, quite indebted to African American music and, more crucially, to the rich heritage behind it. The article concludes by emphasizing that in the world depicted in The Bluest Eye possibilities of resistance and chances of survival are vitally dependent on the strength of one’s connection to African American culture and heritage, as the story of Claudia’s survival proves.

Monte Carlo planning for active object classification

Classifying objects in complex unknown environments is a challenging problem in robotics and is fundamental in many applications. Modern sensors and sophisticated perception algorithms extract rich 3D textured information, but are limited to the data that are collected from a given location or path. We are interested in closing the loop around perception and planning, in particular to plan paths for better perceptual data, and focus on the problem of planning scanning sequences to improve object classification from range data. We formulate a novel time-constrained active classification problem and propose solution algorithms that employ a variation of Monte Carlo tree search to plan non-myopically. Our algorithms use a particle filter combined with Gaussian process regression to estimate joint distributions of object class and pose. This estimator is used in planning to generate a probabilistic belief about the state of objects in a scene, and also to generate beliefs for predicted sensor observations from future viewpoints. These predictions consider occlusions arising from predicted object positions and shapes. We evaluate our algorithms in simulation, in comparison to passive and greedy strategies. We also describe similar experiments where the algorithms are implemented online, using a mobile ground robot in a farm environment. Results indicate that our non-myopic approach outperforms both passive and myopic strategies, and clearly show the benefit of active perception for outdoor object classification.

Auditory Distance Rendering Based on ICPD Control for Stereophonic 3D Audio System

In this letter, we propose a new auditory distance rendering (ADR) algorithm based on the interchannel phase difference (ICPD) control. In the conventional ICPD control, distance perception of the sound image is nonlinearly controlled, and directional localization of the sound image can be biased by changes of the interaural cues. These problems are caused by applying the frequency-independent ICPD without considering the acoustic transfer paths of the system setup. To solve these problems, first, the interaural cues of ear signals are analyzed by binaural auditory simulations. Then, stereophonic ADR filters are designed that produce ear signals with a linearly controlled interaural cross-correlation (IACC) and a consistent interaural level difference (IALD) for sophisticated distance perception under the given stereo setup. Subjective test results show that the proposed algorithm can provide better distance controllability than the conventional method with reduced lateralization blur of the sound image.

Cognitive Penetrability and Ethical Perception

In recent years there has been renewed philosophical interest in the thesis that perceptual experience is cognitively penetrable, i.e., roughly, the view that the contents and/or character of a subject’s perceptual experience can be modified by what a subject believes and desires. As has been widely noted, it is plausible that cognitive penetration has implications for perception’s epistemic role. On the one hand, penetration could make agents insensitive to the world in a way which epistemically ‘downgrades’ their experience. On the other hand, cognitive penetration may sometimes be epistemically beneficial by making agents more sensitive to the way the world is, i.e., by enabling them to see things that others cannot. For example, penetration could ground a ‘high-level’ view of perceptual content, according to which agents can have experiences as of ‘complex’ properties, e.g., natural kind and aesthetic properties. Relatedly, it could elucidate the view that agents can gain perceptual expertise by learning. A type of sophisticated perception (and associated ‘perceptual expertise’) which has hitherto received little attention in relation to cognitive penetration is ethical perception. In this paper I examine the significance of cognitive penetration for ‘Perceptualist’ views in ethics which appeal to a notion of ‘ethical perception’. Although cognitive penetration could ground a literalist model of Ethical Perception according to which agents can have perceptual experiences of the instantiation of ethical properties, the results are otherwise somewhat mixed: cognitive penetrability does not support Perceptual Intuitionism, although it may provide some limited support for Virtue Ethics and Cornell Realism. However, as I stress, the significance of cognitive penetration for Perceptualism should not be overstated.

Population size, not density, serves as a cue for sex ratio adjustments in polychaete worms

Local Mate Competition theory (LMC) predicts female-biased offspring sex ratios when mate competition occurs locally between siblings. The mating system of the marine polychaete worm Dinophilus gyrociliatus apparently fits LMC theory well. Females lay egg capsules with 3–6 large eggs (which produce females), and 1–2 small eggs (which produce males), resulting in female-biased sex ratios. However, mating occurs between larvae, inside egg capsules, and brothers fertilize sisters, possibly preventing any competition between unrelated males and obviating the need for sex ratio adjustments to local population size. Therefore, we tested whether mothers adjusted their offspring sex ratio to local population size, controlling for density. As predicted by LMC theory, sex ratios of single females were less male-biased than those of populations of multiple females, suggesting that males also compete with unrelated males. Sex ratio adjustments occurred irrespective of density, revealing sophisticated perception of the social environment in these worms.

A Constructivist Approach for Implementing and Evaluating Algorithms in a Machine vision Course at the Undergraduate Level

The growth of areas such as automation and robotics demands autonomous systems endowed with sophisticated perception systems like machine vision. However, undergraduate level education is not providing good results in this sense, because students do not participate in the creation of their own knowledge; they are only passive observers. On the other hand, FPGA technology has great potential in areas such as machine vision where many hypotheses are evaluated concurrently, high computation rates are required, and the current systems are far from equaling human performance. Our research notes that by using FPGA and constructivist learning as the methodology, assessment of learning in electronic sciences is not a separate process after learning has occurred, but rather learning and assessment are coterminous. Thus, this paper presents a constructivist tool focused on a machine vision course that allows students to implement and evaluate algorithms of this area on an FPGA. Selectioan and peer review under responsibility of Prof. Dr. Ferhan Odabaşı

The geography of education and comparative education

This article examines the synergy between a long established discipline, geography, and the younger discipline of educational studies, especially its component, comparative education. Although this synergy was recognised by the founding father of comparative education, Michael Sadler, and one of his principal followers, George Bereday, the geography of education has yet to take its place alongside the other foundations of education. Possible reasons for this will be examined as well as the literature of the geography of education as it has slowly developed over the last 40 years.Since the majority of that literature has come from British academics,others have been excluded from this account due to constraints of space but it can be mentioned here that there have been significant inputs from European geographers, especially Peter Meusberger. Throughout, the value of a more sophisticated perception of the spatial dimension of educational activity and provision will be argued, especially in relation to comparative education.

An analysis of gaze following to a hidden location in long-tailed macaques (Macaca fascicularis)

Gaze following, the ability to track the direction of another’s gaze, is thought to be an important component of human and animal social cognition. Several animal species attend to the gaze direction of others, but in Old World monkeys it remains unclear whether this behaviour is based on a simple co-orientation mechanism or on a more sophisticated perception of the other’s visual behaviour. The capacity to follow another’s gaze to a location hidden behind a physical obstacle has been argued to indicate refined skills in determining the exact direction of the other’s gaze (‘geometrical gaze following’) and a representation of space outside one’s own visual field. Human infants, great apes, new world monkeys, wolves (Canis lupus) and ravens (Corvus corax) have been shown to have this capacity. We investigated whether long-tailed macaques (Macaca fascicularis), an Old World monkey, follow conspecific gaze, indicated by head direction and visual orientation, to a hidden location. When a conspecific demonstrator gazed at a mirror hidden behind a barrier, subjects relocated to a position where they could see the mirror location and showed a trend, not statistically significant, to direct more focussed looks behind the barrier than in a situation where there was no conspicuous gaze cue by the demonstrator. The strength of this reaction was greatest in those individuals that looked most frequently at the demonstrator. Thus, long-tailed macaques may follow gaze to a hidden location, suggesting that they possess geometrical gaze following and represent space outside their own visual field. In addition, this capacity may be widespread across the animal kingdom.

Weaving the Rainbow: Visions of Color in World History

In considering both color vision and color values, this essay brings together natural history and human history. After describing the character and evolution of color vision, it examines positive and negative attitudes toward color in leading cultures of Eurasia. It goes on to discuss color perspectives in those cultures, an examination that discloses a Eurasian pattern: while rejecting color in significant respects, Japan also developed a sophisticated perception of it; China periodically followed the West Asian lead on color; and West Asia represented the radiant center of the Eurasian spectrum. Rejecting West Asia's high valuation of color, classical Greece and Rome thereby established a European tradition that eventually was overwhelmed during the early modern period as a consequence of pigments and colorful commodities being imported from around the world. This foreshadowed the modern experience of rich color, a consequence of science and technology making universally available an extraordinary array of saturated hues. Such access to color distinguishes the contemporary world from all past societies.

Southern Africa: A Cataclysm Averted?

In a time when idiocies such as the domino theory comprise a substantial part of American foreign policy one has to look hard for evidence that authentic national interest is anywhere being invoked as a rationale for external relations. That the Republic of South Africa seems to be a world power demonstrating innovation in diplomacy and putting shibboleths in their rightful place says something about the genera] bankruptcy of Western statecraft. While Ford and Kissinger flail about seeking justifications for American failures and misalliances, a moldy, outcast regime in Pretoria has embarked upon a path of diplomatic initiative which has effectively breached the wall of isolation that has surrounded it for two decades. The motives of the regime of John Vorster may be sinister and base, but there appears to be a far more sophisticated perception of long-term interests in Pretoria than in Washington.

Bishop Berkeley and the Corporeal World

To the Editor:— It was a pleasure to see George Berkeley quoted in Dr. L. I. Gardner's letter, ( 209 :1528, 1969) because some of Berkeley's ideas are still relevant. Turbayne has pointed out that Berkeley's theory of vision was much than that. It was also a metaphor for explaining how we exist in the world. 1 In contrast to Cartesian mechanism, Berkeley clearly regarded natural phenomena as a language or discourse to be studied and interpreted. For him, what Dr. Gardner called a more sophisticated perception of the would be a sophisticated interpretation because the world existed as a visual language needing interpretation rather than as a picture to be perceived. Sense data act as by means whereof things not actually perceived by sense are signified or suggested to the imagination which alone perceives them. All signs suggest the things signified. A great number of arbitrary signs,